


Wild in My Veins

by Kiranokira



Category: League of Legends
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Creation Myth, End of the World, F/F, K/DA, Magic-Users
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-06
Updated: 2018-11-06
Packaged: 2019-08-19 18:40:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16540016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiranokira/pseuds/Kiranokira
Summary: “I could go inside you and find the answer myself.”They realize at the same time that she won’t.Because of that, Akali tells her, “I had a friend. A human killed them and made a necklace from one of their fangs. The city where we met? That’s where I hunted down the human and took it back.”Evelynn says, “If anyone makes a necklace out of my teeth, I expect you to level the entire city.”Akali nods, her eyes humorless.





	Wild in My Veins

**Author's Note:**

> Like millions of others, I'm enraptured with the K/DA music video, so I took from the personalities there as well as the backgrounds/stories on the League of Legends site and wrote a creation myth. Also, I made Akali and Evelynn immortal girlfriends. \:D/

At dawn on the first day of the new year, a child goes to the North Gate Shrine carrying a brush and a can of paint. The North Gate is both the largest and most inconveniently-located of the portals to this world, and it takes the child almost an hour to climb the thousand steps up the mountain where hundreds of visitors are swarming to worship the goddess Akali.

Some pray to her with requests for the new year, others offer prayers of gratitude for what they already have, but the child arrives with neither. They peel off to the left, walking away from the warmth and noise of the crowd and into the thick of the teal and violet trees surrounding the shrine. One monk ladling soup for the visitors sees the child leaving the grounds, but only watches as the small figure disappears inside a cloud of shadow.

The child, knowing they’re enveloped and protected by this dark presence, climbs a slope through the trees, far off the beaten path, until they reach a stone tablet glowing fuchsia around the edges. They’ve only seen this place once before while they wandered the forest, but they can feel something special about this place, something ancient and demanding respect.

The child is from a village believed to be under the direct protection of the goddess Akali. Misery has never touched it in any form—not from war, natural disaster, or disease—and there are all sorts of legends that try to explain why. None have ever gotten it right, and it’s unlikely that any ever will, but people keep trying, as people do.

Many born in that village think that they’ll have better luck than others when asking Akali for things. They’re often wrong (mostly because of that impudence). The child, however, is smart enough to understand that they have to give in order to receive, and so they kneel on the grass in front of the glowing stone and begin to pull fistfuls of clumped moss from its base.

This draws Akali’s attention from the festivities in her honor. She materializes in midair over the stone and takes a seat on top in silence, one leg swinging over the edge.

She watches, unseen, as the child scrubs the tablet clean with rags dampened in the nearby stream. When an hour has passed with little improvement made, Akali adds an offhanded blessing to the water, and the grime begins to sluice neatly off.

By midday, the tablet is gleaming like it did when it was first erected.

The child waits for the wind to dry the stone, snacking on dried fruit and seaweed, then pries the tin lid off the top of their paint can. They take a deep breath and draw the fine, densely-packed bristles of their brush through the white liquid inside, visibly eager to begin their real work.

Akali rests her elbows on her knees and looks down at the child as they trace over a long-faded character in the stone.

 _Interesting,_ she thinks.

This child has chosen to do something kind for a goddess—something they know no one else has already done, judging by the state of the tablet. For centuries, it’s been ignored; the stone grown worn, the grass unkept, and the characters weathered almost completely away. Even though its fuchsia glow is just as bright as it’s always been, eternal in strength, generations of monks who care for Akali’s shrine have believed that the tablet’s placement so far from the main buildings mean that it’s a trivial object. Perhaps containing a protective enchantment for the mountain, perhaps an historical account of some deed or legend.

No one alive now can read the writing, and so no one knows its true significance.

But it _is_ significant. More than anything else on the mountain, or in this—or any—world.

Akali knows that objects need meaning for people to care about them, and yet here is a child spending hours coaxing the tablet back to its original glory.

Akali watches everything, her eyes narrow with amusement, and she pries into the child’s heart for what they want from her.

 _Well, aren’t you in luck,_ she thinks, _desiring something I can actually give you._

Akali taps the child’s head with the toe of her boot and grants the child a vision.

•

The world—another one, an older one—is burning to its end. Humans hunt demons, demons tear the flesh from humans, and vastaya plunge their fangs into any living creature they can catch, bringing rivulets of magic-soaked blood gushing to the surface with peals of sinister laughter. It’s all out of balance—all of it—and everything is on the verge of chaos.

In the thick of it, an assassin meets the eyes of a demon, and the mutual lack of fear startles both of them.

The assassin’s name is Akali.

The demon’s is Evelynn.

•

Evelynn is eons old, tempered into a being of incredible power by hunger and necessity over millennia. As long as Evelynn has known existence, long before she could take a physical form, she’s had to find nourishment in the pain of her victims, absorbing their life energy as an afterthought.

In a collapsing world, there’s no end to her feast.

She is fearless, callous, and insatiable.

•

Akali is twenty-three years old. She has a kunai in one hand and a dragon’s fang in the other.

She’s seen demons before, but never one like Evelynn.

•

They face each other on the edge of a lost city where only dregs remain. Carrion for the demons.

Evelynn crosses to the center of the bridge where Akali stands with her chin tipped up in defiance.

“If you wanna cross, cross,” Akali tells her. “I won’t stop you.” She thumbs over her shoulder with the hand holding the fang. “I’m sure there’s plenty back there for you, whatever you’re looking for.”

Evelynn leans close and inhales deep, drinking in some of Akali’s aura. The layers of determination and urgency intrigue her.

The kunai stops a breath from Evelynn’s throat. “I’d stop that,” Akali suggests.

Evelynn smiles and turns her head. Keeping her eyes locked on Akali’s, she licks along the sharpened edge, her tongue turning to smoke.

In response, Akali’s face shows more annoyance than fear that her means of defense won’t actually defend her if Evelynn intends to devour her.

“Well,” Akali says. “Fuck, I guess.”

Evelynn hums in agreement.

•

Evelynn doesn’t think too hard about why she decides to follow Akali away from the city. The sorrow and anguish in that place could have sustained Evelynn for months, but instead she changes into shadow and chases Akali’s nimble footsteps to a nearby mountain.

•

Akali once killed to protect her people.

Even though she doesn’t have anyone left, she still protects.

What else is there to do?

•

Evelynn tells herself she’s just following Akali out of boredom. She used to have to to hunt for her food. Now, with the world in accelerating decline, she never has to stray far from Akali’s side to find some poor soul on the verge of insanity or worse. She drinks in their agony and meanders back to Akali afterward, content and interested only in a nap.

Sometimes when Akali stops somewhere to camp, Evelynn takes human form and lounges by the fire. She plays with the flames, tugging away tendrils with the tips of her claws and blowing them into the air like flower petals.

It amuses Akali, even though she tries to hide it.

•

They find Ahri asleep on a low bough of a tree, and just the sight of her draws Akali close, mesmerized.

Evelynn doesn’t recognize the urge that spurs her to act, but in seconds she’s shifted from shadow, taken human form, and blocked Akali’s path.

Akali frowns, partially shaken from the daze, and says, “What—”

“Mm, sorry,” Ahri murmurs. She opens her eyes and stretches her arms over her head with lazy grace. “Didn’t know she was yours.” She casts a smirk at Evelynn and drops the trance that was pulling Akali to her.

“I should cut off at least four of your tails for that,” Akali says. She’s stung that Ahri’s magic was working on her.

So is Evelynn.

Ahri yawns and turns her back on them, all nine tails swaying below the bough. “You’re welcome to try, mortal.”

Evelynn and Akali share looks. Akali’s says: _I’ll do it_ , and Evelynn’s: _I won’t save you if you do._

•

They run into Ahri again and again after that. Every time, Ahri “forgets” Akali’s face and draws her nearer and nearer to her doom. She does it by feeding Akali’s mind with fantasies. Elaborate ones at first, covering all of Akali’s desires at once, but over time, Ahri learns Akali’s deepest, strongest needs and then delights in dangling them before her human prey.

One night, Akali is tempted all the way into Ahri’s arms, her mouth yearning and her eyes vacant. Evelynn, after dozens of failed attempts to bring Akali out of it, bursts into oblivion and roars half the meadow into nothingness.

Ahri laughs and releases Akali, kissing her forehead once before darting off into the sky.

Akali scowls after her. When she turns to see Evelynn in human form, panting with cold fury, she raises her eyebrows.

•

“I’m starting to think you’re jealous, Evelynn.”

“Whatever gave you that idea.”

•

There are people trying to salvage the unscorched parts of the world.

Kai’Sa is one of them. For a favor, she’ll lead groups of people through the nightmares to somewhat safe havens. Since nowhere stays safe for long, she’s never out of work.

She meets Evelynn one winter night, when Evelynn feeds on one of Kai’Sa’s group.

She slips in at sunset and blends with the group of fourteen, pretending to be frightened and snuggling against a young man’s chest after the fire is banked for the night. When she persuades him deeper into the woods, she opens him wide and drinks from his suffering as he perishes slowly. When her hunger is sated, she finally lets him go and watches dispassionately as the light in his eyes flickers out.

Kai’Sa is standing nearby, arms folded over her stomach.

“I could be upset about that,” she says.

She’s human, like Akali, and therefore barely a threat. But the yawning depth in her aura and the crystal wings arched behind her imply that there’s more to her than even Evelynn can discern from a glance.

“You’re not, though,” Evelynn says. When did she get in the habit of speaking to mortals?

Kai’Sa lifts her shoulders, but the wings don’t move. They don’t seem to be attached to her body at all, in fact. “I’m not,” she says. “He undermined my directions a few times.”

Evelynn smiles. Affection for strangers is something she’ll never understand. She barely understands her affection for Akali, if that’s even what it is. It’s amusing to watch mortals try to justify killing.

“Don’t come near my group again,” Kai’Sa says.

She doesn’t flinch as Evelynn shifts back into shadow without giving her a response.

•

A demon younger than Evelynn sees the years stockpiled in Evelynn’s form and tries to consume her.

They’re on a riverbank when it happens, Evelynn asleep in the human form she’s been spending more and more time in while Akali tends to her weapons.

Only an ambush could challenge Evelynn’s power, and resisting the demon’s unexpected strength takes a toll on her. She’s lost sight of Akali completely in her effort to fight the demon away, so she’s caught off guard when Akali drops from a tree, breaking the demon’s hold on Evelynn’s fragile human neck, and pins the demon to the ground while Evelynn regroups enough to suitably destroy them.

The ground steams with their eviscerated remains.

Akali grins at her and reaches out for a hand off the ground.

Evelynn stares back at her, something coursing inside. Acting on impulse, she slides her fingertips down Akali’s wrist along her beating pulse.

Instead of helping Akali to her feet, she kneels between Akali’s thighs.

“I could have done this when we met,” Evelynn says.

Akali says, “I know,” and drapes her arms over Evelynn’s shoulders. “I’m not impressed yet.”

“You will be.”

•

The something coursing inside her makes more sense in human form.

She stays that way more often and tells herself it’s to keep other demons from wasting her time with pointless challenges.

•

Much later, Akali and Evelynn climb a mountain to visit the temple of the dragon god Bi’Naa. Akali doesn’t explain why, and Evelynn doesn’t care to know. She’s with Akali; any information beyond that is extraneous.

After saying a brief prayer at the temple’s entryway, Akali takes out the fang she’s been carrying for years and drops it in the blessed well.

The moment it touches the water, a shaft of red light pours out and Bi’Naa themself, long and golden and whiskered, appears on the roof of their temple. Their scarlet eyes hold a span of time even longer than Evelynn’s.

“Thank you,” they say.

Akali takes a knee and bows her head.

Evelynn looks at the dragon god, shrugs, and curtseys.

•

Much, much later, Evelynn asks why they went to the temple.

Akali stares at her for a while, then says, “We need to work on your sense of timing.”

“I could go inside you and find the answer myself.”

They realize at the same time that she won’t.

Because of that, Akali tells her, “I had a friend. A human killed them and made a necklace from one of their fangs. The city where we met? That’s where I hunted down the human and took it back.”

Evelynn says, “If anyone makes a necklace out of my teeth, I expect you to level the entire city.”

Akali nods, her eyes humorless.

•

The next time they meet Ahri, on a beach near a vortex that’s drawing in sentient magical life, her aura looks viscous and unstable.

She takes a swipe at Evelynn, her fangs bared, then passes out on the sand.

Akali sighs and picks her up and carries her away from the vortex.

They break into an abandoned cabin to recoup. When Ahri wakes up in a nest of blankets, she winces.

“This is embarrassing,” she says. “Should’ve known not to try and steal magic from a force that steals magic.”

Akali and Evelynn communicate through a glance. The rules of the world are broken, and things like magic-devouring vortexes are becoming more common. Soon, there’ll be no sense to anything.

“You shouldn’t be alone anymore,” Akali says.

•

Ahri interprets that as an invitation to stay with them.

•

Evelynn isn’t threatened.

•

She isn’t.

•

The three of them pass their time in the cabin, wary of what’s going on outside of it.

Screams pass the walls, dark and light come and go at unpredictable intervals, and Ahri says, “I didn’t have much of a plan for the future, but all of a sudden, I really want to have one.”

•

When the world outside the cabin disappears for a few long hours, Evelynn automatically shifts into shadow.

When Akali reaches for her hand, she changes back and doesn’t change again.

•

Kai’Sa bangs on the door until Ahri opens it. She gives the three of them a nod of gratitude when they let her in.

“What’s going on out there?” Ahri asks.

Kai’Sa says, “The world is ending.”

Akali says, “Well, we knew that already.”

Kai’Sa sits on the sofa next to Evelynn and glances at the door. “Yeah,” she says. “It’s pretty close to ended, though.”

•

Sound is the next thing to go.

Akali wonders if there’s any point in trying to save the world. It turned rotten so long ago, it seems past the effort of saving.

She could probably write that down if she really wanted to share the thought, but she decides against it. Ahri has stationed herself at the window, frowning, and Kai’Sa is attempting to meditate.

Evelynn, however, learned how to read Akali a long time ago, and she raises her eyebrow with clear surprise at the defeatism laced through Akali’s thoughts.

 _That’s not the person you were when we met,_ Evelynn tells her.

Akali stares back. _The world is_ ending. _I’m allowed to be a little morose, don’t you think?_

Kai’Sa waves to get Ahri’s attention, then points between Akali and Evelynn.

Ahri rolls her eyes emphatically.

•

Light ends while Akali is napping on Evelynn’s shoulder.

All that’s left are a few final physical sensations.

•

And magic.

•

In the moment when everything is on the brink of becoming nothing, and chaos is at its wildest, Akali weaves her fingers with Evelynn’s and ascends with her to divinity.

•

Their new world is too bright, but most things are like that in the beginning.

•

“We can each have a corner.”

“I call the north, then.”

“Why?”

“Because our cabin was there.”

•

When the child leaves the forest, the darkness dissipates from around them and returns to the tablet. To Akali.

Evelynn changes to her human form, reaching back to brace her clawed hands on the stone so she can put her figure on full display. Akali’s gaze travels the length of her with casual appreciation.

Evelynn has made a hobby of perusing the souls of Akali’s visitors, weeding out the unworthy and devouring them whole. She does the same at her own shrine at the East Gate, but she tends to spend more time here.

The child’s rattled emotions simmer pleasantly in Evelynn’s core. A small snack of troubled mortal emotion is all she needs to survive now in this world they created.

She noses Akali’s temple, nips her earlobe, and asks, “What did they want?” She was too busy rooting around in the child’s deepest insecurities in search of malevolence to pay attention to what was going on in the child’s mind. By the time Evelynn felt convinced that the child wasn’t a threat, Akali had ended the vision.

Akali’s gaze shifts from the child’s departure to Evelynn’s golden eyes. “They wanted to know where they came from,” she says.

Evelynn’s lips spread into a wicked smile. “Oh, pet,” she purrs. “You showed them?”

Akali leans into the gleaming claw that traces her jawline, radiating self-satisfaction. “Sure,” she says. “They repainted our vows.”

“They’re going to tell people what they saw.”

“That’s fine. It’s been a while since someone had the right story anyway.”

“You just like people talking about the river demon.”

“True.”

•

Atop a mountain that Akali built with the blessing of a dragon in the last moments of the end of the world, two ancient goddesses watch another new year begin.

**Author's Note:**

> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/hadakanomind) | [Tumblr](http://kyashin.tumblr.com/)


End file.
